All in the Name of a Promise
by DreamWithYourEyesOpen
Summary: Fred finds a moment alone with Hermione (following the death of Voldemort) to get something off his chest. He made a promise to himself before the war and he intends to keep it.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione stares forlornly at the destruction that surrounds her. This had been her home. This had been her favorite place in the world, a place where she truly felt safe, and _he_ had ruined it. He had destroyed it and defiled it; all in the name of power.

She had escaped from the crowd to the remains of the Grand Staircase, sitting on a bottom step that hadn't been completely blown to bits. Harry and Ron still remain in the Great Hall where everyone had congregated after Voldemort's defeat. With the relief of his death, also came the exhaustion and the grief.

A sob escapes from her tightly pursed lips. So many lives lost. _Too_ many lives taken. After embracing Harry and each member of the Weasley clan, she'd found that it was all too much. Surrounded by the dead and those who remained, she slipped away after promising Harry and Ron that she just needed a moment alone.

She grips her wand tighter and stares blankly ahead. With so many emotions roiling inside of her – joy at their win, despair at their losses – she can't discern whether she wants to cry from relief or from misery.

Hermione rolls hers shoulders back in an attempt to shake off some of the soreness that covers her entire body. She feels so incredibly exhausted and spent, and desires nothing more than to take a hot bath and sleep for days.

She hadn't even realized he had walked out of the Great Hall and towards her perch until he is right in front of her. Fred looks the worse for wear with dust covering him, his clothes torn in some areas, and several cuts cover his face. Hermione meets his gaze and nods in greeting.

He lowers himself next to her and both stare ahead at nothing, sitting in a comfortable silence. She silently notes his twin's absence and wonders at Fred's company. Hermione has never considered herself a close friend of the twins. They were really only Ron's older brothers who seemed to think it was their rightful duty to get under her skin as frequently and deeply as possible. She has spent plenty of time with them in the past, but this is the first time she can think of that she's spent time with one of them alone.

Fred finally breaks the silence. "How are you feeling?"

Sore. And oh so tired. She can't decide what she wants more, a shower or bed. She lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? You nearly died under that wall."

She turns to face him and sees the corner of his mouth flit upwards. "But I didn't thanks to you."

Hermione had been close enough to see the wall fall, but not close enough to prevent it. What happened afterwards was nothing short of a miracle, as Hermione sprinted to the rubble and freed Fred from underneath. She was finally able to revise him after using countless spells on him, some of which she wasn't entirely sure were legal or spells found in a non-restricted section of the library.

She'd then been tackled by George and Percy in thanks, and Fred had only been able to give her a grateful smile over George's shoulder as she was ushered away by Harry and Ron to continue fighting. Other than some minor cuts and bruises, he appeared to have escaped pretty much unscathed.

"I never got the chance to say thank you. I know that I shouldn't be here right now. I owe you my life."

Hermione feels a prick of pain deep within her somewhere at the thought of how much darker the world would be without the full set of Weasley twins. She also notes that the serious expression on Fred's does not suit him in the least.

"Fred, you don't owe me anything. We're practically family."

He grimaces and looks down at his feet. "Right...family..."

Hermione smiles at him uncertainly. Maybe it had been a little presumptuous of her to assume that he'd feel the same way, but she truly found all of the Weasley members to be like family to her.

Fred abruptly stands up and she jumps back from his sudden movement. He leaves his back to her, one hand scratching his head. His ears gradually grow pinker, and Hermione's interest - and confusion - peak.

His voice is tight when he speaks. "I followed you over here for a reason. I know my timing is shit, what with everything that just happened, but I need to talk to you about something."

Still feeling kind of confused – what could Fred Weasley need to talk to _her_ about? – she pats the spot next to her. "Okay. Come sit and talk to me."

He sighs. "It's not that easy, Granger."

"I don't see why not."

He lets out a chuckle, the pink now lightly tinging his cheeks. "Hermione, you absolutely terrify me."

Hermione scoffs at him and crosses her arms over her chest. "Well that's rather rude of you. Just because I don't approve of your and George's antics doesn't mean-"

"No, that's not what I mean. What I meant to say is..." He lets out a huff of frustration and plops back onto the step next to her. "You terrify me because you make me feels things that are only reserved for those silly Muggle romance novels you love to read."

She opens her mouth to retort - she seems to remember him actually taking a liking to a few of her _silly_ romance novels - when the implication of his words hits her.

"No no no - let me finish," Fred takes a deep breath and stares deep into her eyes before powering on. "I fancy you. This is not some joke or prank, so please don't take any of this lightly. And I'm not telling you this with the expectation that you have some deep, hidden love for me. I know how you and Ron feel about one another, even if you're both too daft to admit it to each other yet, and I know where I stand. I'm his annoying, rule-breaking - albeit handsomer - brother and nothing I say is going to change that. But I promised myself that if we both got through this war alive I'd finally tell you that I've been mad for you for years." He lets out a sigh. "So there it is. Hermione Jean Granger I have been in love with you for Merlin knows how long and I'd rather be rejected with no regrets than to continue on without you knowing."

Hermione stares at him, much like a fish, with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. She tries to process his words but finds every thought to be incoherent, save for the continuous line of ' _inloveinloveinlove.'_ Fred snickers at her expression.

"Which reminds me, George is awfully angry with you for turning his twin into a 'bumbling, obsessive twit,' I believe his words were."

"Fred...I..." Hermione wrings her hands and tries to clear her throat, but dear Merlin what does he expect her to say? For someone who's just professed his love for a girl, he seems relatively relaxed now. He leans against the step behind them, looking completely at ease. Now that it's finally off of his tongue, the tenseness in his posture is completely gone. The pink on his face still remains, but even that is fading. "I think you are incredible-"

Fred holds up his hand to stop her, and she immediately snaps her mouth shut.

"I'm going to stop you right there before you get to the inevitable ' _but'_. I told you; I know how you feel about me and that's fine. Yes, it sucks that I can't come out of this a winner, but at least I got to get it off my chest." He grins at her in ernest, and it's clear to see that he doesn't feel the awkwardness that she feels. In typical Weasley twin fashion, he looks entirely at ease.

Hermione wants to follow his lead and let the conversation lie at rest, but she finds her curiosity getting the better of her.

"How long have you...?"

His self assured expression breaks at the edges a bit and he clenches his fists in his lap. He turns away from her.

"That's not important."

Hermione wants to argue and say that of _course_ its important, that _all_ of this is important, and how _dare_ he act as if he hasn't just completely shaken her world. Her emotions are all over the place and all she can 100% feel is pure confusion. Over the years, Fred has never even hinted at his feelings. They had barely had a conversation that didn't start with her threatening 'wait till your mother hears about this!' There were no longing looks or second glances. He was just _Fred._

"Rest assured though, Granger. I told you I had no expectations, so I'm not heartbroken or anything. This was all in the name of my promise to myself." Pushing himself to his feet, he turns to face her once more. He cocks his head to the side and studies her face. She doesn't know what he sees there. What she does feel is her skin tightening from her tears from earlier. A few new tears prick in the corners of her eyes and her eyebrows furrow. Her eyes are wide in panic over the situation and they flit back and forth across his face. How can he be so impossibly calm?

He leans down so that his face is level with hers. "It's okay, Hermione," Fred whispers. He places a lingering kiss to her forehead before slipping back into the Great Hall.

Hermione sits there, still as a stone, her forehead tingling. It had been chaste and far from her lips; a passerby might've even called it brotherly. She might have said the same if it weren't for his confession. But with the new knowledge of his feelings, her face feels hot and she feels as if the kiss has traveled all throughout her body down to her toes.

Hermione might have been able to brush the whole ordeal off if it had been some mere crush. But he loves her. More than that, he's IN love with her.

And oh Merlin does she wish he hadn't told her.

Because if he hadn't told her, nothing would change. He would still just be one-half of the Weasley twins, who were forever a thorn in her side. She wouldn't be second guessing her original analysis of him. She wouldn't be thinking about his good traits - his intelligence, his loyalty, his bravery - traits that she had never given a second thought on because what did it matter? It was only Fred. She wouldn't be thinking about how damn handsome he is and how a kiss as innocent as the one he had given her could affect her so much. Things had been just fine between them until he had decided to muck things up and change everything for her.

Hermione shakes the thoughts of Fred out of her mind and begins towards the Great Hall - towards the Weasleys, towards Harry, towards _Ron_.

Pushing thoughts of her conversation with Fred to the far reaches of her mind, she tries to focus on Ron. She thinks of the kiss she and Ron had shared hours earlier, ignores the small twinge of guilt, and smiles at the thought of their new relationship. Because _that_ is what's important. Fred had said he has no expectations of her, so she is going to go on as she would have had he not told her.

She doesn't think of Fred and his confession. Because she just knows that if she were to think about it long enough, she could love him too.

And that terrifies her more than anything.

* * *

AN: It has been oh so long since I've written anything so please be kind. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add more to this or leave it as a one shot, so I'll just choose based on the kind of feedback I receive.


	2. Chapter 2

"Fancy meeting you here, Granger!"

She continues to stare a hole into the step below her with her wand emitting sparks in her clenched fist. When it comes to him, ignoring his presence is really the best course of action.

"Lovely little nest you've made yourself."

Oh Merlin, now he's sitting.

"Why yes, Hermione. I HAVE been having a nice night! Thanks for asking!"

What kind of person sees a girl moping on some steps outside of a party and thinks it's a good idea to strike up a conversation? She drops her head in her lap with a groan.

"Although my night would be going much better if my sister weren't currently snogging Mr. Chosen One in the living room, and-"

With a shriek, she whips her head towards the grinning twin next to her. "FRED! What the bloody hell do you want?" Her voice cracks towards the end of her sentence, and she mentally curses the damned twin for finding her in such a dreadful state.

All traces of humor falls away from his face, and his suddenly intense eyes lock onto her.

"I'm sorry about him." Hermione blushes and hangs her her head low.

"You didn't deserve that," Fred continues in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. He hesitates for just a second before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

While the move is unexpected, it isn't entirely unwelcome. The heavy weight of his arm is oddly comforting, and she unconsciously shifts closer to him.

Hermione sniffs and wipes at her damp cheeks. "Fred, Ron and I are no longer together. He is allowed to date whomever he wants." Even though that "whomever" happens to be the same girl she found him in bed with three months prior. Of course there had been signs of his infidelity, but Hermione had chosen to put trust in her boyfriend of almost a year. She had broken up with him immediately after finding them together, and that should've been that.

"He brought her knowing you'd be here," Fred hisses. "He brought her here knowing full well that no one from the family would approve of it. What a daft idiot."

The venom in his tone startles Hermione, but she reminds herself that the same hatred was in each and every one of the party guests' eyes when Ron showed up to the Burrow with Lavender. The night was initially for Harry's birthday party. It isn't the first time Hermione has been to the Burrow since her breakup with Ron. The Weasleys were unfailingly supportive of her after the ordeal. But Ron is family, so she had to continue to deal with his constant presence. Things had been uncomfortable between them, to say the least, but they had adopted an unspoken agreement to keep things civil for the sake of the rest of the Weasleys and their mutual friends.

And Hermione stuck to that agreement. She grieved, and she got over it. Their breakup really hurt her, but she had known all along that her relationship with Ron was not the end-all of relationships. Things had been rocky between them long before his transgression.

"I'll kill him. Just say the word, and I'll kill him." She chuckles at Fred's words, and leans her head on his shoulder. Fred pulls her closer to him and rests his head on top of hers.

"I was planning on breaking up with him."

"Before…?"

"Yes," she sighs. "Before he so thoughtfully cheated on me with that bimbo, I was planning on breaking up with him."

"But...you were just crying over him bringing her."

"I'm upset over Ron the best friend, not Ron the boyfriend. He's been my best friend since I was eleven. I would've thought he would have had enough respect for me to not bring her around here." Then again, he didn't have enough respect for her to not cheat on her.

She can almost hear the gears in Fred's head turning before she continues. "We just were not meant to be together. It wasn't working, and it was never truly going to work. We're too different."

"Granger, I could've told you that years ago."

"But it's more than just different interests...he wanted to date your mother."

"I beg your pardon?"

"He wanted someone who was going to have dinner ready for him the second he got home from work. Someone who would stay home with his half a dozen children. I'm not that person, and I'm never going to be that person. Neither of us were making the other happy, and a breakup seemed inevitable. I had planned on doing it. I was just trying to work up the courage."

"Well...good. You were always way too good for him anyway." Fred presses a kiss to the top of her head, and she feels her cheeks grow warm. The memory of a similar kiss while in a similar location is suddenly in the forefront of her mind, and he's all too close.

"You deserve nothing but the best." He whispers this into her hair, and Hermione forces out a low chuckle.

"I don't think I've ever seen you so serious before."

They both know she's lying. There had been one instance.

"What can I say, Granger? I'm a man full of surprises."

He turns to face her, and she recognizes the glimmer of something in his eyes that she had been avoiding for far too long. His confession after the battle at Hogwarts had been pushed to the far recesses of her mind. Because Ron had come first. He had to come first. But there had been hidden moments here and there where she had noticed. Not just the stolen glances, not just the lingering touches, but him. She had noticed _him_.

"So...you're not pining after my brother?"

Hermione hesitates for half a second before making a decision.

"I can safely assure you that I have no residual feelings for him, save for general annoyance and disappointment. But what else is new?"

Fred grins at her, and she grins back and finds herself mirroring him when he slowly leans in towards her, and they -

"What the bloody hell is going on here?"

Hermione jumps back from Fred in surprise. Ron stands in the doorway to the kitchen with Lavender wrapped around him like a second skin. His face is already turning a molten red, and Hermione can almost imagine steam coming out of his ears. The mental image strangely makes her almost laugh out loud in the tense moment. Lavender, on the other hand, smirks at Hermione in victory.

"I don't think anything Hermione does is any of your business," Fred responds to Ron, almost casually. His smile is stony and forced, and he wraps his hand tight around Hermione's as a way to comfort her in the face of her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. However, Hermione finds herself not sad, but annoyed with Ron. Not because of Lavender, not because he cheated, but because he had interrupted...well, something. The beginnings of something that she's finally allowed herself to feel and want and need.

"I'm okay, Fred. I can handle this." Hermione nudges at him and gives him an assuring look. He looks uncertain, but he stands up from their spot on the stairs after giving her hand one last squeeze.

Ron glares at him while Fred passes by him on the way to the living room. Fred cocks his eyebrow back at him, the threat evident there - _'try something and you'll find yourself with itching powder in your sheets.'_ Soon, it's just Hermione, Ron, and Lavender in the hall.

The silence is awkward - Ron glaring at Hermione, Lavender smirking at her, and Hermione looking in the direction of the living room - until Ron breaks it.

"You really couldn't find yourself someone else, huh. How long did it take you to move onto him after we broke up? A week? A day?"

Hermione opens her mouth to deny his accusations - even though she's just now starting to realize her own feelings she had locked away for so long, even though she's just now realizing the enormous potential that Fred had known all along - because Ron had been the one to cheat, _for Merlin's sake_. But Lavender speaks up before she can say a word

"What a cow. You just had to help yourself to another Weasley, didnt you? Won-Won wasn't enough, so you had to go and try to nab a Weasley twin?"

Hermione's mouth snaps shut. All thoughts of defending herself disappear, and dealing with the two of them is suddenly too exhausting, too much of a waste of time, for her. Particularly when she could be devoting her time to more deserving people. Ron and Lavender are both standing there looking entirely too pleased with themselves, waiting for her to do something, say anything. In their eyes, she is the one who had lost. She gives them a smirk similar to that of the mischievous twin. How wrong they are.

"Maybe." Her response floors them, but she doesn't stick around. She swiftly moves passed them towards the living room, and immediately seeks him out.

He's laughing with George and Ginny, but his attention goes right to her when she enters the room. His smile turns softer and the glimmer is there again. Hermione smiles back.

Maybe, indeed.

* * *

AN: WOW I am so sorry I'm just now returning to this after over a year! I'm the worst, I know. (Should I end this here, or have one more chapter? Suggestions, please.)


End file.
